This 5-week wine course costs €75 per person and takes place on Thursday evenings from 7:30-9pm starting on October 11th. It will cover topics such as wine tasting, storage, major grape varieties and wine regions. At least one session will be held offsite where participants can sample food and wines together. The course aims to provide a fun and interactive way to learn about wine appreciation.

1. 5 week
Wine Course
Red Nose Wine
Clonmel Business Park
www.rednosewine.com

2. Course Details
• €75 per person
• 5 weeks starting Thursday October 11th
• 7.30-9pm in Shop
• At least one night will be offsite ( not
included in price – Food & Wine extra )
• Set agenda – but open to change
• Cheese night – Nov 1st
• Food night – Nov 8th

3. Course Outline
• What is wine ?
• How to Taste & Assess Wine
• Wine Serving & Storage
• Grapes – 3 White & 3 Red
• Wine & Food & Cheese
• Wine Regions
• Wine Styles
• Anything else we think of

4. It’s a tough job

5. Wine Philosophy
• Wine should reflect the land where the
grapes are grown and also the people who
tend the vines and make the wine
• Wine is an organic living entity that
changes constantly
• It is not a production line product
– Different should be good, not bad
• Try to mix up the type of wines you drink
– There is huge diversity out there

6. Wine Quotes
• “Wine is bottled poetry”.Robert Louis
Stevenson
• “The best use of bad wine is to drive away
poor relations”. French proverb
• "In water one sees one's own face; But in
wine, one beholds the heart of another.“
French proverb
• “Wine is one of the most civilized things in
the world” Ernest Hemingway
• “Wine improves with age. The older I get,
the better I like it”. Anonymous

7. Wine
• Alcoholic beverage made from fermented
grape juice
• Yeast + Sugar = Alcohol + Carbon Dioxide
• Most wines are Light Wines
• Except
– Sparkling  Champagne, Cava, Prosecco
– Fortified  Port, Sherry, Madeira
– Aromatised  Vermouth

8. Differences
• Colour  Red, White & Rosé
• Sweetness
– Dry ( <=4g/L RS )
– Medium Dry ( <= 12g/L RS )
– Medium Sweet ( <=45g/L RS )
– Sweet ( > 45g/L RS )

9. Examples
• Bone Dry
– Muscadet, Loire S/Blanc ( Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé ), Chablis,
Brut Champagne
• Dry
– Most Chardonnay, S/Blanc, Semillon, Loire based Chenin Blanc
• Med Dry
– Riesling, Viognier, Gewürztraminer, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Gris
• Med Sweet
– Tokay, vendage Tardvive
• Sweet
– “Botrytized” wines, Sauternes, Saussignac

10. Sweetness & Acidity
• All about balance – just like life
• Sweeter the wine  more acidity
needed
• Dry wine  acidity not needed
– Already appetising & crisp
• Too much acidity = ‘green’ wine ( or
“tart” )
• Too little acidity = “flabby” wine ( or
“flat” )

11. Tasting Wine
• The 5 senses
– Smell, Taste, Touch, Sight, Hearing
• Taste
– Sweet, Acid, Bitter, Salt, Savoury
• Smell
– MUCH more….

12. The Jelly Bean Test
1. Close your eyes
2. Pinch your nose
3. Start eating a jelly bean
• What do you taste
1. Let go of your nose
• What happens?
1. The difference?

13. The Palate

14. Tasting
• Quality
– Cleanliness
• Cork taint, Sulphur Dioxide, Oxidised
– Balance
• Acidity, sweetness, tannin and alcohol
– Length
• Flavours linger long after the wine
• Environment
– Avoid  Perfume, Smoke
– Correct temperature
• ( 10° - 13°(W) OR 15° - 18°(R) )

15. To spit or not to Spit
• Wine Fact  there are no tasting
facilities in your throat
– You do not need to swallow to taste
wine
• Economic Fact  we are in recession
– Only spit bad wines
– Enjoy the good ones
(sensibly of course)

16. Wines to taste
• White – Chardonnay
– Santa Alicia Reserva Chardonnay 2011, Maipo Valley, Chile
• Brilliant yellow with golden tones
• There are intense aromas of banana, papaya, pineapple and
mango combined with elements such as toasted oak, vanilla and
butterscotch.
• The palate is concentrated, with mineral and tropical notes.
– Christophe Camu Petit Chablis 2010, Burgundy, France
• Light to mid gold
• Clean, flinty nose, restrained citrus, melon, hint of gunflint/smoke
• Tangy grapefruit and lemon, tart acidity but nice roundness and
richness, smooth, hints of butterscotch and white pepper spice,
lovely flinty finish, with more grapefruit, refreshing with good
length.

17. Wines to taste
• Red – Tempranillo
– La Granja ‘Pig’ Tempranillo 2009, Cariñena, Spain
• A soft rounded juicy red wine, with rich ripe raspberry flavours. It
is nicely balanced with tobacco and coffee.
• A great match for barbeque roasted pork chops, spare ribs,
sausages, grilled vegetables and cheeses.
– Lar de Paula Madurado, Rioja, Spain
• Single variety Tempranillo from a selected harvest from vines over
20 years old, matured in new oak for four months.
• The wine has an intense cherry red colour.
• The nose has a great intensity with nuances of ripe black fruit.
• On the palate it is meaty, with sweet tannins and notes of fruit
jams

18. What’s in a Grape ?
• White – Chardonnay
– It is a good-yielding variety that is like a sponge  easily
influenced.
– Buds early in the season and also ripens relatively early –
delicate.
– The best chardonnays come from cool climates like Burgundy or
California’s Carneros District, but the variety also adapts well to
warmer regions like Australia
– Chardonnay ripens easily and produces medium-to-full-bodied
wines with rich apple, citrus, and tropical fruit aromas and flavors.
– It can be vinified as a crisp, fruity quaffing wine, the best, most
complex chardonnays, as in Burgundy, are fermented in small oak
barrels and put through a secondary, malolactic fermentation,
which imparts toasty, buttery characteristics to both the wine’s
aroma and flavor.
– Chardonnay is best paired with simply prepared seafood and
poultry dishes – salmon is great with it.

19. What’s in a Grape ?
• Red – Tempranillo
– Tempranillo is a primary red wine grape for much of Spain, especially
wines from the Ribera del Duero and the Rioja Alta.
– short growing season and this early ripening tendency is the source of
the name tempranillo, which translates to "little early one".
– Tends to be low in acidity and sugar but high in tannin.
– Can age well in ideal growing conditions.
– Berry like fruit ( plums ) , vanilla, coconut and sweet wood
with light oaking
– More smoky, tasty and tarry with heavier oaking.
– Some wines display leather and tobacco characteristics
– Also works very well blended ( Garnacha being a good match )
– Great match for lamb – pork – herbacious foods – roast chickn